x100e Mini-Review - General Tasks, HD, Gaming

[Zathu]

I've had my x100e for a week now. I've had to do some tweaking to the Lenovo power manager before being happy with the device. Most importantly, I've found that setting the CPU to maximum performance on AC, and adaptable on battery is the best combo for decent performance. Downclocking the frail AMD Neo CPU leads to a terrible experience.

I'm using the x100e for personal use and have moved to it from a Dell mini 10v netbook. I've found that the keyboard AND touchpad are much more comfortable, and as I'm getting used to the trackpoint I'm falling for that as well. Very nice soft buttons. I'm typically a Mac user, and I'm glad to see two finger scrolling working. The default two finger scroll is a little weird, since you have to lift BOTH fingers before the driver realizes you're in pointing mode about. I've found that disabling Synaptics two finger scrolling and installing two-finger-scroll from Google code makes the two finger scrolling more Mac-like.

720p on YouTube works pretty well, although not completely smooth. 1080p is too jumpy. I've played a few Q3 engine games including Quake Live, Jedi Outcast, and Jedi Academy, and they all run flawlessly on the ATI Mobility Radeon 3200 HD. Newer games work -- the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warefare demo is very playable at it's lowest settings.

Real battery life is ~2.5 hours. This is the only thing that my netbook did better at. Since I'm not away from an outlet that often, I'm glad to compromise. A very comfortable upgrade from a limiting 1024x600 netbook, but I'm still using my iMac when I want to get stuff done.

Benchmarks:
GeekBench: 1048
3dMark06: 1025

[comptechexpert]

Nice review could you do some application specific reviews for the X100e and maybe add some extra information!!!!

[Zathu]

Overall device application or specific software applications?

My application for this device is simple cloud access when I'm in my living room or at a friend's house. Google Chrome is in focus 95% of the time. Google Reader, my primary web application, looks great on this display with the "Optimized Google Reader for Wide Screens" Chrome extension. I also use Google Docs on here from time to time, but I don't have Microsoft Office installed. The x100e tethers with my iPhone over USB or Bluetooth wonderfully.

I also got a WaterField SleeveCase from SFBags.com that perfectly fits the x100e with it's 6 cell battery. I can get a picture if anyone wants. With this it's easy to throw this ultraportable in my messenger or duffle bag.

[frankausmtank]

Thanks for the review. Glad to see some real world opinions about the keyboard,
according to early reviews, it's indeed one of the best chiclet type keyboards around.
The 2,5h of battery life are a bit disappointing, since this ruins the 'ultraportable' aspect
quite a bit.

[ZaZ]

Yes, It'd be great to see this come with CULV CPUs, which should offer less heat and better battery life. How's the heat on yours? Some of the reviews on it said it gets toasty. Thanks for the review Zathu.

[domi]

I've had my x100e for a week now.

What exact model?

Downclocking the frail AMD Neo CPU leads to a terrible experience.

Can you be more specific?

[ThinkRob]

I'm curious to know how it compares to other ThinkPads re: build quality. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

[domi]

I'm curious to know how it compares to other ThinkPads re: build quality. Any thoughts?

I ordered this one yesterday, it should ship tomorrow. I'll be able to pitch it against my X60s. Not that I bought the X100e as a replacement for my X60s, I'm waiting for the X210 or X210s (haven't made up my mind yet). But the X100e was available right away and I'll have needs for it.

[felixgogo]

Considering the price point of the X100e, it is excellent build quality. Far better than all the other netbooks I've seen.

Sure, it's not a X61, but that costs 3-4 times the price.

The plastic case is very good - I am not sure about the rollcage - the guy at the store reckoned it was titanium, but I am not sure he was correct. A shame Lenovo could not spray it in the Thinkpad soft coating, that would have been superb.

The machine feels excellent, very well screwed together, great screen, and the 'scrabble' keyboard is very, very good.

I do miss the thinklight, given the keyboard is new, I am surprised it was not backlit.

But in total, it ticks most of the boxes for a Thinkpad Netbook!

[ThinkRob]

I'm still going to wait for 1) a few more reviews 2) Intel CULV models to be released. Once those two requirements are filled, I may just pick one up as my next tech. toy.

[comptechexpert]

SOUNDS LIKE A BETTER MACHINE THAT PEOPLE(INCLUDING ME) THOUGHT IT WOULD BE AT FIRST.

[ThinkRob]

SOUNDS LIKE A BETTER MACHINE THAT PEOPLE(INCLUDING ME) THOUGHT IT WOULD BE AT FIRST.

Seems about what I figured it would be -- but that's not saying much, considering that I haven't even seen one in person!

On another note: why the shouting?

[amue]

From what you hear about the X100e, you can tell that it is a nice notebook with good build quality and ergonomics, but a battery life of 2.5 hrs would be completely sub-par.
I was wondering under which circumstances the thread starter achieved his 2.5 hrs? (brightness, etc.)

[comptechexpert]

On another note: why the shouting?

I had caps lock on from something before and only noticed that I hadnt turned them off at the end and didnt bother to change it!

[Zathu]

The only build issue I've found is that the palm rest isn't quite flush with the front bezel where it meets the left touchpad button. Not really a big deal.

I was wondering under which circumstances the thread starter achieved his 2.5 hrs? (brightness, etc.)

Brightness: 9
Bluetooth: On

For the 2.5hr test, I ran pagereboot.com every 30 seconds to simulate active web browsing over wifi. I was using the default power settings. I've since slightly tweaked my power settings and it feels like I'm getting more, maybe closer to 3 hours, but I haven't timed anything.

I was also having a problem with the brightness and audio hotkeys to be very delayed, but I found there was a Fn Key update on Lenovo's site which seemed to help.

[Zathu]

Good news, I re-ran the same benchmark with the new BIOS and some slightly tweaked power settings and I got just over 4 hours. The new BIOS update also added the "Battery Stretch" option, which can apparently stretch the light even further by killing screen brightness, themes, etc.

[comptechexpert]

I know Lenovo says this isn't a "netbook" but how does it compare with something like the Asus Eee PC 1000HE?

[Colonel O'Neill]

Weird... I thought the CPUs in the X100e are supposed to be more efficient and not run as hot...
The AMD Neo in my X100e seems to hover around 55C
TPFanControl only reports aps temps and those are 61C usually, which is kind of annoying considering the bottom of it gets rather warm.

[rkforum]

I took a hard look at buying an x100e- but given the reviews of performance and battery life I held off- was going to wait until dual core models came out- but then I'm guessing the price would be $750/800.

I ended up buying an X200 for $840 on ebay factory sealed. It is a little larger then the x100e, and a little more expensive, but given the high performance and 8 hour battery life I'm glad I did it. The more I looked at the X200, the more it seemed to be a better choice than the X100e.

[jvarszegi]

rkforum, what sort of support did your X200 come with? I paid $600 shipped for an x100e with Win7Pro, 2 GB of RAM, extra power supply, sleeve, and 3-year onsite support. Just trying to get a handle on the actual price difference for comparably specced machines (sans of course processor). There is of course no doubt that the X200 is a better machine, and I hope to get one in the coming year as well.

[rkforum]

My system is

Win7 home premium 64 bit
3GB RAM
built in WWAN
9 cel battery (8 hours!)
P8600 dual core 2.4GHz
320GB hard drive
1 year warranty

the only gripe is sometimes I wish I had a touchpad because I worry about the trackpoint wearing out- but I have an external wireless mouse I use much of the time.

It is really just awesome. And with the X201 out the price of X200's will continue to drop I think. The x200 is kind of in that sweet spot of still an awesome machine but not the most current model so the price is good.

I think the X100 looks sweet in its small package, but the X200 is only about an inch bigger in length and you get the battery life and the dual core for just a couple hundred bucks more.

[jvarszegi]

I think the X100 looks sweet in its small package, but the X200 is only about an inch bigger in length and you get the battery life and the dual core for just a couple hundred bucks more.

I just don't think it's only a couple hundred bucks. It seems to be around $350 or more, i.e. easily 150% or more of the price depending on how you configure things like support. But of course the money may be well spent if you have it-- you get a lot for that $350.

For what it's worth, though I have generally had good reliability from Thinkpads, I would always choose a lesser-specced 3-year-warrantied machine over a somewhat more powerful one with a 1-year warranty. But then again, the difference in price between sub-models is usually so close you can make the stretch for both if you like.

I'm possibly looking forward to relegating my x100e to secondary status after I get the money for an x200. I am just starting a business at the moment and have to watch every dollar. But if the performance is sufficient for me, why upgrade? The main thing I'd be paying for is better battery life, and around 4 hours should be okay. It's obvious the x100e is not a road warrior's best choice, as it wouldn't be good on frequent flights-- but I have had many laptops with 4 hours or less battery life and dealt with it.

[raven3]

I own a business and the x100e is excellent. I had to upgrade to a SSD because I can't afford a crash or HDD failure. The x100e is very solid and rugged, fast too. If you are worried about multitasking, don't be. Check out the other thread on upgrades and performance.